Valkyrie in Marvel dates back to the early 1970s when she was part of the defenders. Thor goes all the way back to the early 1960s in Journey into Mystery, where if he dropped his magic hammer, he was stuck in the form of Dr. Donald Blake, the medical practitioner with a severe limp.

In recent memory, both of these characters have seen a significant revitalization in the MCU with performances by Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth. Even if some of their movies aren’t your cup of tea, for many enjoyers of entertainment, the performances by these two actors are still hallmarks of the characters.

For comic book enthusiasts, you’ve probably already heard, but if you haven’t, read Jason Aaron’s run of Thor, beginning in 2012. There are plenty of phenomenal authors for Thor, Jurgen and Simonson to name two who did wonderful things with the character. For me, Jason’s Aaron’s run takes the cake. His story lines including Gor, later Malekith and the War of the Realms, and establishing the Mighty Thor are a just few highlights.

In any case, Thor is the God of Thunder and part time Avenger. Valkyrie mixes her time with guarding the gates of Valhalla and hanging out with the Defenders.

But we are not here for that. It’s time to take a look at these two mythic heroes on the table!

Thor, Prince of Asgard

Stat Card

How to Use Him

Thor is a different animal than he was when he originally came out. More recently, he has been overshadowed by the Hero of Midgard, and not without reason. Even with the recent nerfs to the Hero of Midgard, Prince Thor can still be a little bit of a tough sell at times. But I am here to tell you that the Prince of Asgard should not leave your roster entirely and is still great on the table.

First, he has a good statline: four for all of his defenses is pretty standard for a five threat model. With that said, I don’t recommend relying on defense dice to survive. Without any other defensive tech, it is a good thing that Thor has a larger than average stamina pool of fifteen (seven on the front and eight on the back).

His Strike is a six dice builder at range two with a size four throw on a wild. Overall, it’s a very strong, if short ranged, builder. Still, he doesn’t have any native dice modification, so he can fall flat if the dice don’t back him up.

His second attack, Hammer Throw, is fairly unique. One power for range five with five dice that guarantees Shock to the target is a great way to soften up an enemy model before charging in. The fact that he has an attack at range five means that he can impact a huge portion of the table. Shock is also a stealth form of defensive tech. If your opponent rolls fewer dice to attack, then your models take less damage.

God of Thunder, like other area attacks, can be a little bit of a letdown. I’ve managed to use it against multiple characters a handful of times, but it usually isn’t the best use of his power. I’ve had the dream scenario of using the spender against two or more models with an active Brothers in Arms for a ten dice area attack, but it’s only happened twice.

Even with a lackluster spender, Prince Thor has plenty of great ways to spend power. His charge, For Asgard! costs a full three power and is limited to his strike only. But, and it’s a huge but, if the attack deals damage, the target model is staggered. In my mind, the stagger is functionally Thor’s other piece of defensive tech. If Thor charges into a big, threatening model and denies it an action, Thor is much more likely to survive. It is worth taking steps to support Thor, especially for his charge. If the damage doesn’t go through on the charge, then the stagger doesn’t land, and Thor is likely to get dazed by whichever big hitter he flew into. I generally like to have Invincible Ironman or even Heimdall around to give Thor a little more consistency on his charge with rerolled dice.

In my mind, Thor’s real strength comes from being the Strongest Avenger. A size four character or terrain throw at range medium is top tier. There are only a couple of models that Thor can’t throw. He can displace most models. Alternatively, he can add up to five damage to an activation for the cost of three power.

Lastly, just to be thorough, Thor is Asgardian, so he gains an extra power in the power phase. He is also, phenomenally, immune to shock and stun.

In my experience the throws are what really make Thor stand out. The fact that he has a 60% chance to throw a model whenever he uses his strike and a three cost character or terrain throw means that he can rival Hulk in his ability to displace models. Unlike the Hulk, however, Thor doesn’t start with enough power to use his throw, so he is reliant on dice to generate power on his strike to be able to unlock all of the cool things he wants to do.

Then, of course, as the Prince of Asgard, Thor is a leader of the Asgard faction. Here, our Prince is being outshone again by the new shiny leaders of Loki and Mighty Thor. Still, I think that Thor’s leadership has a place. At the beginning of every friendly activation, dealer’s choice of one model (but only once per round for each model) can remove a condition or a wound for the cost of one power. This leadership pairs extremely well with Asgardians, who all gain an extra power each round. Being able to drop a stagger for a big model, like Mighty Thor, Jane Foster, or even Hulk can be a huge swing in a game. Recovering wounds is nice too.

Valkyrie

Stat Card

How to Use Her

Valkyrie’s stat line begins like many other three threat characters: three for all of her defenses, eleven stamina with six on the front and five on her injured side. This means that it’s important to carefully consider where and when to have Valkyrie rush in, because she has a tendency to daze quickly.

While her defenses are on the mid to low end of three threat models, her offensive output can be phenomenal. Her Strike (this was before AMG started giving fun and characterful names to basic attacks) is a standard range two, five dice, and gains power equal to damage dealt.

Her spender, Dragon Fang, does not do much to push her over the edge either, yet. Range two, seven dice, power cost of three. It guarantees bleed and with a crit and a wild (close to a 40% chance) Valkyrie gets to follow up with an extra Strike attack.

Now, her super powers do quite a bit to set her apart. Asgardian Might is a size two character or terrain throw for a cost of three power. While you will probably skip this in favor of other uses of power, being able to displace size two characters can be a big move for scoring objective points.

She also has a straightforward Charge for two power. While this is not exceptional on its own, the fact that Valkyrie is Asgardian and begins each round with two power means that her charge is ready to go out the gate.

Her other superpower, Warrior of Legend, allows you to spend two power to add an extra hit to your attack for each wild or crit in your roll. Unfortunately, you have to make the decision to use this ability before you roll dice. So you could spend two power and then find yourself without the dice you need to use it. If you are the kind of player who likes to gamble a little, Warrior of Legend on a Dragon Fang attack that results in five or more damage and a follow-up strike is a high worth chasing.

Cards

Sometimes the tactics cards that a character can bring are disappointing. It’s not the case here! Thor has a phenomenal selection of cards. A few team up cards, many of which are fun and characterful. Thor and Valkyrie, by virtue of being Asgard affiliated, have access to some truly…um… optimized cards.

Brothers in Arms

This card is currently banned in a standard timeline game; thanks to Hero of Midgard for ruining what was otherwise an odd, but pretty good, card. If you end up using it in a casual game with Prince Thor, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Defensively, this card prevents any Thor Odinson and Beta Ray Bill being Advanced, Thrown, or Placed while they remain within range two of each other. They can still be Pushed. Using this to make it harder for your opponent to get these two off an objective in the late game is already a solid card. But wait, there’s more!

Thor and Bill also add three dice to their energy attacks while they remain in range two of each other. For Bill, this means Summon the Storm and Godhunter are both monstrous attacks. While Hero of Midgard gains the benefit of this card for his builder (which is notably reduced from the absurdity of his release days) Prince Thor only has one energy attack, God of Thunder. Since Bill and Thor have to be within range two of each other, and Thor’s attack is A2, Bill has to take collateral damage (or ignore it with his Korbinite Cybernetics for a cost of one power). This attack is likely not the reason you would reach for the card, but I did get to use it once with Thor’s area attack, and it was fun.

Still, banned cards are banned in competitive events. Maybe eventually it’ll show up in a timeline event.

Sibling Rivalry

Thor’s other Asgardian team up is specific to Prince Thor and the original Loki, the God of Mischief. Thor and Loki, within range two of each other, during any of your activations, may spend one power each to throw Loki medium. If Loki collides with another character, that character rolls two fewer dice to dodge, and suffers the Stagger special condition if they take damage.

This card, also colloquially referred to as Get Help! is one of my favorite cards in the game. It is tactically flexible and excellently represents the wonderful comedy of one of the stronger entries into the MCU. It is worth noting that this card is unaffiliated, so you can bring it in any team with Prince Thor and Loki, God of Mischief. I love the flexibility of this card.

Because Loki generates two power, this is a safe grab. Thor starts in line with a midline objective. Loki advances ahead of Thor, but within range two. Use this card to Throw Loki to the objective (obviously terrain can present a problem) and because it only costs one power, Loki can grab the objective and move away.

Alternatively, you can use this card offensively to get an extra stagger in. It can be part of Thor’s activation. It can be used like a pounce for Loki during his activation. It also allows for aggressively placing Loki forward to enable his God of Mischief superpower to make your opponent’s superpowers more expensive.

Finally, this card can be used to toss Loki away from the action if he needs to be alive (say he’s holding an objective or two).

Overcharge

For five power, any Thor Odinson or Carol Danvers can give Tony Stark a free, out of activation area attack that automatically shocks any targets and gives Tony one power per target.

That’s good. It requires Tony Stark to be surrounded by a few enemies, but if he is, this is solid. Considering it’s most likely to come up while playing Avengers, who have a few very strong cards, it is a tough decision to bring this in the five cards hitting the table. Still, I think it’s worth considering, especially on a crisis lineup that is tightly packed.

Thunder Wave

This card is another team up; this time it’s Thor, Prince of Asgard and Captain America. This can include either Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson, but it can’t include any Steve Rogers, just the original release from the core box.

This active card allows Thor and Cap to each spend one power so that Thor may use the attack listed on the card once this activation. It still requires an action to make the attack.

On the plus side, a six dice energy beam is good.

On the other hand: is it good enough to justify a tactics card? I don’t think so. Add to it the fact that strictly speaking, until there is another FAQ that changes it, Cap takes damage from the attack. Thor is making the attack and the beam template is placed coming from Cap’s base, which means Cap is hit by a friendly beam attack. Thus, he takes one damage.

Doomed Prophecy

Asgard has a list of potent tactics cards that are worthy (pun intended) of putting in your roster, if not in your crisis team. The saga of Thor in Marvel comics is full of portents and prophecies about the future, none more potent than Ragnarok. Of course, Ragnarok has come, been delayed, happened, cycled through, and then it was even a cyborg Thor for a minute.

I digress. This card represents the aspect of Ragnarok where some of the gods of Asgard are prophesied to die at the end times. So, to bring about that end, this card allows one Asgardian a truly fantastic round of knocking heads before the character prophesied to doom gives up and stops defending itself from physical attacks.

Three power to add dice equal to a character’s Physical Defense for the round is quite potent in a roster full of characters with four dice in the same stat. There are at least a handful rolling six dice for their attacks as well, which offers the possibility of ten dice in attacks that build power followed by a character or terrain throw. The offensive output from this card is potentially back breaking.

The downside is that the character cannot roll physical defense against any attacks for the rest of the game. The other downside is that this card must be played at the beginning of the activation phase. This means opening up the character using this card to attack without being able to roll physical defense dice at all.

Priority is an important tool to take advantage of to use this card effectively. If the doomed character activates first, they can get their big activation in before the opponent has a chance to respond. Alternatively, careful play where the opponent will only be able to bring energy or mystic attacks to bear, will increase the chances for survival.

Generally, saving this card for the late game where it can be used to KO a particularly troublesome piece or shift the scoring significantly is ideal.

There are a few standout candidates for the card:

Skurge stands at the top of the list. Four physical defense with a six dice physical gainer, all for a character that is only three threat, means he’s cheap and gets effective use out of the card. He lacks a charge, so getting him into position is vital to be able to get two attacks. If you can muster up the power, his spender is pretty oppressive with an extra four dice.

Lady Sif with her rerolls on physical attacks can be an absolute force of nature with Doomed Prophecy at her back. A nine dice builder or eleven dice spender with the possibility to reroll any dice is close to the efficacy of a Helios Laser.

Beta Ray Bill and Hela are both solid options. Four physical defense with reasonably good physical attacks can do well. Bill is notably there for surviving and Hela is notably fragile, so neither are my first choice.

Prince Thor, Mighty Thor, and Angela all bring ten dice on their builders when doomed. They are solid candidates if the idea of sacrificing a five threat model is appealing or necessary. I am fairly certain that doomed prophecy does not add any dice to Jane’s second activation if she were to couple it with Heart of the Worthy.

Valkyrie, Loki the God of Mischief, and Heimdall all bring three dice in Physical defense as well as only five dice in their builders. I think there’s something to be said for Heimdall taking a last stand with Forfend. But without physical defense, he’s unlikely to survive more than one attack coming in at him. Valkyrie is a nice use of the card because she tends to go out in a blaze of glory anyway, so it might as well be a big blaze.

Freyja’s Blessing

When Freyja offers her blessing to any affiliated character, they get to reroll any number of defense dice through the round in exchange for three power. This can be a way to keep an important model on the table for longer. Unfortunately for Freyja, Asgard is spoiled for choice, so this card is competing against some very good ones.

Still, in an affiliation with large stamina pools and high defensive stats, rerolls can keep an important model around quite a bit longer than it otherwise might be, which can be enough to swing a game.

Odin’s Blessing

Odin’s Blessing is one of the pre-eminent tactics cards in the game. The ability to functionally nullify a single attack is phenomenally powerful. This should make the short list for just about any Asgardian crisis team. It is limited to only affiliated characters.

Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge offers some extra movement to any number of Asgardian characters may spend three power to place range three away. Considering Bill, Skurge, Loki, Loki, Angela, Enchantress, and Heimdall all lack a charge, this is a solid way to get some extra movement. Movement outside of a model’s activation can be powerful as well, to pull a model to safety or hop to contest or capture an objective at the end of a round. Characters holding objectives cannot use this card. They can’t even drop an objective to take advantage of the card.

Versatile Strategy

I want to bring Versatile Strategy to the discussion. Thor, Prince of Asgard has a phenomenal leadership that is likely to be useless for the first round, and maybe not particularly useful in the second round either. At the same time, both Mighty Thor and Prince Loki have phenomenal leadership abilities that can be useful as soon as you start rolling dice.

There is a strong play into opponents that want to stack conditions on Asgard: essentially, leverage Jane or Loki’s dice rerolls as long as possible. Then, when Asgard starts to get staggered, shocked, incinerated, stunned, or slowed (or anything that is particularly annoying to the game plan), play Versatile Strategy to switch to Thor and start removing those conditions and enhancing the survivability of the team.

This blends particularly well with Prince Thor who does a lot to lengthen a game and play to objective points. If an opponent is able to steal objectives, slow any potential characters chasing them, and run away, dropping slow can be game winning. If an opponent is looking to incinerate the entire team (minus Bill) to whittle away at the Asgardians more quickly, nothing is better than dropping incinerate and healing whoever avoided the condition.

This works well when playing Asgard into objectives. If the goal of the Crisis team is to do as much damage as possible, it feels less necessary, as Thor, Hero of Midgard is more likely to be in the roster anyway.

Teambuilding

Thor, Prince of Asgard, Leader of Asgard

In order to leverage Prince Thor in an Asgard roster, look for models that can survive, and will benefit from healing and removing conditions.

Beta Ray Bill is a standout. He is a survivor and healing wounds adds to his survivability. The game plan for Thor and Bill is to survive and throw enemy models around. They both accomplish this exceedingly well. Bonus points that he can also shock enemy models.

Valkyrie also has a character throw. It’s only size two, but the majority of characters in the game are size two, so she can throw them. She tends to be a little more vulnerable to attrition than Thor, but still does well in a Thor roster.

Mighty Thor, Sif, and both Loki’s can push or throw characters with the appropriate triggers built into their attacks. They are all solid characters that can bring other benefits to a Thor roster: strong offence or interesting and annoying superpowers.

I’ve found some success with the much maligned Heimdall. His rerolls are often at too short a range to be meaningfully impactful, but he brings the ability to move friendly characters around at significantly fewer threat than Prince Loki. So, he provides the opportunity to put allies back onto objectives after an opponent has moved them off.

In order to fill gaps in the roster, a two threat model and a six threat model are ideal as non-affiliated. Wong stands out because he can add power to other characters, which helps Asgardians do all of the cool things they want to do. A little extra healing boosts the game plan with Prince Thor as well. Toad works well to support the objective plan.

Hulk is obviously a strong six threat character. He adds to the game plan of removing models from objectives. The ability to remove conditions, especially stagger and shock, can be a way to prevent an opponent from crippling Hulk with conditions to make his activations less effective.

Prince Thor is also a founding member of the Avengers, Earth’s mightiest heroes. As the strongest Avenger, Thor pairs well with either incarnation of Steve Rogers. Captain America gives Thor access to his charge or throw on turn one. This means that Thor can get into the fray or take a secure objective in the opening moves of the game. Steve as the First Avenger gives Thor more consistency, which he desperately needs. If he has the power, Thor has slightly higher than a 90% chance to get his throw trigger on his strike.

Valkyrie

Even several years after her release, Valkyrie is still a strong three threat model, despite the addition of the critical trigger to her flurry. She can charge beginning round one. With a five dice attack, it’s not likely to break the game, but an extra attack on round one is still an extra attack.

In Asgard, she pairs well with Mighty Thor, as she benefits from having rerolls. One reroll per round is statistically half of a success per round, which adds up over the course of a game.

Valkyrie is also an early member of the Defenders. Just as she pairs well with Mighty Thor’s leadership, she also does well under Daredevil. She is fairly fragile, but the extra rerolls for her can push an attack to build enough power to activate some of her other abilities. A little extra dice efficacy can go a long way.

Conclusion

Despite being older releases, Thor and Valkyrie can still show up and impact a game. Thor is one of the better control pieces in the game, with multiple throws and the ability to deliver shock consistently at range five. Valkyrie is still a three threat slot machine who can punch above her weight class.

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